Use of child influencers: UFC-Que Choisir files a complaint against McDonald's

Europe 1 with AFP 2:37 p.m., October 13, 2021

The consumer association UFC-Que Choisir announced on Wednesday that it had filed a complaint against McDonald's France for "deceptive commercial practices": it accuses it of illegally using child influencers for its advertising, which the fast food giant disputes.

The UFC-Que Choisir raises the case of young influencers who promote McDonald's products on social networks, directly citing the restaurant chain, without mentioning the existence of a commercial partnership, in its complaint filed on Monday.

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McDonald's denounces an "abusive complaint"

"However, to conceal the advertising nature of a message, thus letting the community of an influencer believe in disinterested advice, is a deceptive commercial practice punishable", recalls the association in a press release published Wednesday. For McDonald's, this is an "abusive complaint, intended for the media, which absolutely does not reflect the nature of [its] practices," he said in a reaction sent to AFP. The group said it was considering filing a "malicious prosecution" complaint.

In a similar case, influencer and reality TV star Nabilla Benattia-Vergara was fined 20,000 euros for promoting stock services on Snapchat, not to mention that she was paid for it. "The perfidy of such a lack of transparency increases if the target community is made up of children, less armed than adults in the face of hidden advertising messages," said the UFC-Que Choisir. Last April, McDonald's had already assured the association "never to make any partnership with minors aged 17 or under, or [with] parents exclusively highlighting their children on their channel".

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A decree from the Ministry of Culture expected 

The group says it has also "repeatedly offered exchanges to answer all the questions of the consumer association", without success.

Without commenting on the details of this file, the president (LREM) of the Committee for Cultural Affairs and Education of the National Assembly, Bruno Studer, asked in a press release "the limitation of product placements and partnerships "in" videos created by users of the platforms ".

A decree is expected from the Ministry of Culture, in application of the European SMA (audiovisual media service) directive: the deputy expects a duty to respect "ethical rules".

"Audiovisual commercial communications should not directly encourage children to buy goods and services," he argues.

Bruno Studer is the author of the law of October 2020 aimed at regulating videos featuring “influencer” children on the internet.

But it aims "the protection of children who appear in front of the camera and not that - just as important - children who are behind their screens", he explains.